We
all have our favorite lines from The
Beverly Hillbillies, from one liners such as Jethro's "Hot dog!"
to Jed's wistful "Someday, I'm gonna have a long talk with that boy"
to clever puns such as the time (during the second episode) when Miss
Hathaway wanted to know if Jethro went to Eton as a boy.

"If
I know Jethro, he went to eatin' when he was a baby," Jed replied.

Could
anything be funnier? I'll share my favorite Hillbillies line, but not
before discussing the phenomenon of the extended Clampett family's descent
upon Beverly Hills in their 1921 flatbed after striking it rich when
an oil well sprouted in their front yard back home in the Ozarks.

Never
before in the history of television had there been such a discrepancy
between critical and mass appeal as when the Hillbillies appeared on
CBS on September 26, 1962.

The
Hillbillies climb to the top was one of the swiftest in television history.
The show rose to number one only three weeks after its premiere, and
by December of '62 was attracting 33 million viewers a week-doubling
up the viewers tuning into Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall and Gene Kelly's
comedy-drama based on the popular movie Going My Way.

The
show hasn't gone out of style since. It dropped out of the top twenty
only during its last season in 1971, and has remained popular in syndication
and on cable, drawing up to sixty million viewers a week.

Upon
their introduction to Jed, Granny, Jethro and Ellie May, however, the
critics held their noses as if the Hillbillies hadn't had a lye soap
in a while. Newsweek called "the most shamelessly corny show in years";
Time said "the pone is the lowest form of humor...a program that is
dedicated to finding out how many times the same joke can be repeated."

The
New York Times was no kinder, writing "The Beverly Hillbillies is steeped
in enough twanging guitar and rural no-think to make each half-hour
seem like sixty minutes." Social critic David Susskind was alarmed by
the subject matter of the show that he called upon "the few intelligent
people left" to write their congressman and complain. The federal government
could relocate the Clampetts back in the Ozarks on their way to integrate
public schools in the South.

The
viewers begged to differ with such broad intellects, however. Compared
to the twanging guitar on CBS, Perry Como on NBC suddenly became a second
rate crooner belting out the same old tunes and Gene Kelly on ABC was
a washed-up hoofer trying to make it on the tube. Critics continued
to waste valuable print space scratching their heads over the success
of the most inane show they could imagine.

In
spite of what the critics believed, the success of the show was no accident.
Creator Paul Henning was well aware that his proposed sitcom would not
be the first to portray down home people. But the characters in The
Real McCoys and The Andy Griffith Show were own their turf. Why not
uproot some rural types and place them in the middle of riches and wealth?
CBS executives, didn't see the point at first, but Henning convinced
them with a pitch over lunch at The Brown Derby.

When
production began, the show boasted one of the costliest sets in television,
with the 27-inch deep cement pond costing $15,000 alone. After R.J.
Reynolds agreed to put up its advertising dollars following a private
screening of the pilot in New York, Henning and the network embarked
on a clever PR campaign, bombarding the public and critics with ads
for the show while keeping the private lives of the actors top secret.

It
would not lend credibility to the characters, for instance, for viewers
to see Max Baer attending a Hollywood premiere dressed in a tuxedo or
to see Buddy Ebsen lounging on his sixty-foot yacht. Henning and the
network butted heads one last time after the show went on the air.

CBS
executives felt the show lacked a moral message, didn't tug at the heartstrings
enough. That was the point, Henning told them. The Clampetts' backwoods
moral superiority would ruin the theme of the show, which was to spoof
the frivolous, self-absorbed Beverly
Hills lifestyle, not pass judgment on it, much in the same way
Norman Lear would treat the urban blue-collar lifestyle with All in
the Family.

It
was simply a fact of life that there are people like the Drysdales and
people like the Clampetts in the world. Why not bring them together,
not in some voyeuristic experiment to prove who's better but just to
have a laugh?

After
a year, the media finally got it right. "Folks who look down their noses
at TV's number one show have it all wrong. In truth, it mocks pretension-a
spectacle the great American public has always enjoyed," wrote The New
York Times Magazine on November 17, 1963. The magazine grudgingly bestowed
some critical praise upon the show, but still treated it as some strange
phenomenon enjoyed by Americans with the taste and intelligence of 12
year-olds.

Everyone
knows what happened the Friday following the Times Magazine article,
and years later author Steven D. Stark would note another strange phenomenon
in the midst of that tragedy. "Seven regular episodes of the Hillbillies
immediately following the Kennedy assassination grace the list of the
most widely watched half-hour shows in TV history," Stark wrote in his
book Glued to the Set.

Now,
my favorite line from the Hillbillies. In one of the early episodes,
Jed takes Jethro to an exclusive private school to re-enroll him in
the sixth grade. When they announce their intentions to the headmaster,
she cooly says 'You dooo knoooow that we charge a tuition."

"If
that means it costs, money, I can pay," Jed says, "as long as it don't
cost over $25 million."

"I
was wondering if you knew about the Beverly Hillbillies pilot that has
different music (more bluegrass) and a totally different laugh track/sound
mix than the "Clampetts Strike Oil" show?

"'The
Hillbillies of Beverly Hills' has a slightly
different opening and titles, then goes into the exact 1st episode
- except for a different opening shot of the bank (with different name)
and sound mix - with a couple of scenes having slightly longer dialogue
in the pilot.

"At
the final scene where the Clampetts run up the hill, the
credits roll there - then it really gets interesting! After
the credits a whole new scene opens up where Mr. Drysdale is talking
about showing them the mansion for the first time. You see the beginning
of what became the second episode - but the interior of the house is
different. Jed and Jethro have a scene in this room that was evidently
reshot.

"There's
another new scene where Ellie Mae goes on a date with a guy from the
bank. Then the camera pulls back and Drysdale is revealed as talking
to his shrink. These three scenes never wound up in the final episodes."
- Dan Wingate

NOW
ON DVD!"I have a copy of a
16mm episode on tape that has an additional part of the theme song. You
know, after the cast credits, then Paul Henning's name comes up (it usually
ends there). During the initial run there was an additional 30 seconds
- ever wonder what Jed was pointing to just before the song ended? It
was a billboard advertising Kelloggs Corn Flakes. (That's why the Clampetts
always ate Corn Flakes for breakfast.)

"Now come along
and visit with the Clampett fam-i-lee as they learn the simple pleasures
in the hills of Bever-lee. The folks who bring you products are the
sponsor of the week, the best to you each mornin', fresh from Battle
Creek. K E double LL O double good - Kelloggs best to you!"

"There were
also a couple of commercials that ran during the show with Jed and Jethro
enjoying a Winston cigarette (another sponsor) and yuckin' it up with
hillbilly humor.

"The pilot
script was written by producer Paul Henning - it's almost word for word
the filmed show. It's even written phonetically as they would have spoken
in the show.

"Exterior filming
at the mansion was not done after the first season because so many people
actually drove up and knocked on the front door asking to meet Granny
- the owner kicked Filmways off the lot after that."
- Kevin Squires